Suspect in Indiana police shooting found dead

Police officers search rooms at the Motel 6 Thursday, Feb. 9, 2009 in Jeffersonville, Ind., after two Jeffersonville police officers were shot after responding to a call at the motel. According to Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin, police are searching for Vincent D. Windell, Jr., in relation to the shootings. (AP Photo/Brian Bohannon)
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Police officers search rooms at the Motel 6 Thursday, Feb. 9, 2009 in Jeffersonville, Ind., after two Jeffersonville police officers were shot after responding to a call at the motel. According to Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin, police are searching for Vincent D. Windell, Jr., in relation to the shootings. (AP Photo/Brian Bohannon)
/ AP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. 
A man suspected of shooting two Indiana police officers in an ambush was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot Friday night, hours after he had barricaded himself in a Louisville house.

Negotiators tried all day to end the standoff peacefully, but the suspect was found dead at 8:45 p.m. after he shot himself, said Louisville Metro Police spokesman Robert Biven. Police had deployed gas inside the house around that time, Biven said.

Police had earlier said the suspect in the house was Robert Datillo, 37, of Jeffersonville, Ind. Datillo was wanted by investigators probing the shootings of the officers at a motel Thursday in southern Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville. Both officers were in stable condition Friday.

"It's always to our interests to have the person come out. Unfortunately this person decided to take his own life," Biven said.

Police had said Datillo indicated he was armed during the daylong standoff. A SWAT team, hostage negotiators and federal agents had descended on the southern Louisville neighborhood of well-kept one-story brick houses around 10:30 a.m. EST after a vehicle believed linked to the shootings was seen there, said Alicia Smiley, a Louisville police spokeswoman.

In southern Indiana, police questioned two other men about the shootings and later released them, saying they were no longer considered suspects in the shooting. However, Jeffersonville, Ind., Detective Todd Hollis said police hadn't ruled out charges at a later date for Vincent Windell Jr., 22, and Kyle Bieber, 19, Datillo's nephew.

The two men acknowledged they had at some point Thursday been in the motel room where Jeffersonville Cpl. Dan Lawhorn, 39, and Patrolman Keith Broady, 32, were shot, Hollis said. But police did not believe they were in the room when the shootings occurred.

The ordeal began that evening when the officers went to a Motel 6 in the Indiana city, which is just across the Ohio River from Louisville, to investigate reports of drug activity. Gunfire broke out in a motel room after they arrived, with Broady shot in the chest in an area not protected by his bulletproof vest, and Lawhorn shot in the leg, Hollis said.

He said at least seven shots were fired at the officers and that Broady fired twice in return.

Drugs and two pipe bombs were later found in the motel room, police said, and the explosives were safely detonated there.

The weapon in the shooting has not been recovered. Hollis said police found a box for a .45 handgun, the same caliber fired at the officers, and ammunition for several styles of rifles and shotguns in Bieber's apartment.

Both officers who were shot underwent surgery at a Louisville hospital.

Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan, who was among nearly 100 people who visited the hospital late Thursday and early Friday, said he expected the officers to recover.

"They've still got a hill to climb," he said. "They're tough young men and they'll be fine."

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Associated Press Writers Ken Kusmer and Charles Wilson in Indianapolis and Bruce Schreiner in Louisville contributed to this story.